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The Undead is a layered and sharply observant portrait of an artist caught in the machinery of state power, and the choices one faces in a system where even indifference can be dangerous. Written with the intimate insight of an émigré from Putin’s Russia, The Undead is both a compelling narrative and a chilling reflection of how repression operates today—not just against dissidents, but against anyone.
When Maya, a young Russian filmmaker, makes a low-budget horror movie, it seems like a promising start to her indie film career. But her jokey lo-fi picture soon attracts the attention of the autocratic state, and Maya is swept into a nightmarish system where logic breaks down and no one is safe.
Svetlana Satchkova is a Russian-born journalist and writer who immigrated to the United States in 2016. She covers culture and politics, with bylines in the Rumpus, Newsweek, LARB, the Independent, and others. Currently a research fellow at the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at NYU, she holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and lives in Brooklyn. She has published three novels in her native Russian; The Undead is her first novel in English.
